Saturday, October 7, 2017

GABF Thursday

Thursday the morning starts not knowing what to expect. Breakfast is had at the hotel, the dining room is filled with shirts of beer from all over. Brewery after brewery, GABF shirts and soany more. We picked the hotel everyone is staying at, we find out later there has to be easy more than one.

We decided to walk the downtown area and do the beer tourism thing. Being from the east coast we started a little early for the area. But wait what's that in the distance, they might be open.. @Great Divide Brewing is open and already serving. There's a small crowd of fellow early morning folks busy for this time of day but the two girls at the counter had it covered no problem. We ordered our flights and found our spot to begin. All of a sudden minutes later we were moving, we picked the crowded area but there was no more room to move too. The place was packed, the two girls behind the counter were joined by another guy and still the line formed, us with three beers left to try.

After the first brewery we went walking again, the only plan, find another place of beer. We posed at Coors field because, well, when in Denver... Then we walked on. Finally a little brewery with open doors was shining light on our path.
@JaggedMountain brewery had their doors open and welcomed us in with morning smiles. Beer the only thing that brings morning smiles. A fantastic Grafruit beer was had, Cattywampus, with not a drop of rhine flavor hitting the batch. Great conversation with a home brewer and his son meeting back up from opposite ends of the country to enjoy the pastime of drinking beer. Then lunch suggestions are heeded and are of again.

Stomachs grumble and the thurst of more beer drives us forward. Taking the suggestion of Jagged Mountains bar tender we headed towards @TapXIV a place just across from another filled tap house but upstairs past the empty bar below it. Taps down the entire length of a nice size bar call us in. Local, distant they are from everywhere. We ordered new beers, ahh life is good. Enjoying the view from the rooftop bar we notice some local brewery friends have gotten the same advice for lunch. The guys from @EscapeBrewing joined us at the bar for beer and a delishious lunch. Conversation, beer and food who could ask for more, this was only part of the reason everyone was here. There's still more to come.

It's almost time to go. A short walk down the street to the convention center leads us to a line, an amazing line. Just prior we finished some great Mexican food from down the street, were full bellies a mistake? The line lead us to the now customary security checks we all must endure these days. Once cleared to drink we arrive at line two, holy crap how many people are already here. Many of the brewers guild already roaming the floor. We are hearded into the corrals and asked to move forward and fill all the available space. We comply, there is beer to be had, soon. The bagpipes signal we are getting close and the corrals one at a time in order of their fill are left loose.

The game is on, where to start, how to record, what do we do? Overwhelmed feelings hit almost immediately, how can we try 3800+ beers in our available two days. The fact that loss is inevitable is soon washed away by the sheer number of delishious new beers. Recording them all is impossible. Games are afoot on the floor, visit brewery XYZ fill out this card get a shirt, done. Drink until they tell you no more. See the device's of beer making, take it into your home. We made a dent. Just a dent. But wait Saturday there's more to come...